Earth Law Center Blog
The Atrato River Was Given Rights: What Happened Next?
Colombia’s Atrato River ruling of 2016 was celebrated globally as a landmark victory for Rights of Nature. Yet, a decade later, the river’s experience poses a difficult question: what happens after recognition? Illegal gold mining continues to contaminate its waters with mercury, threatening biodiversity and human health. Armed groups remain active in parts of the basin, complicating governance and enforcement. And communities who depend on the river continue to face environmental degradation. The Atrato case shows that legal recognition raises equally important questions about how those rights are implemented in practice.
Pacha Mama vs. the State: Assessing Judicial Development and Implementation Challenges of the Rights of Nature in Ecuador
In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognize the inherent Rights of Nature (RoN) in its national constitution. The change came through a constitutional referendum that recognized Pacha Mama—Mother Earth—as a legal subject, capable of being represented in court and protected by enforceable rights. Today there are over 600 initiatives around the world using RoN frameworks to advance environmental protections, and Ecuador has inspired many of these initiatives. Eighteen years on from its historic constitution, however, the country also demonstrates how challenging it can be to achieve meaningful RoN implementation.
Rights of Rivers Champion Marí Luz Canaquiri Receives 2025 Goldman Prize
Marí Luz Canaquiri Murayari, a Kukama leader from Perú’s Loreto region, has won the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of environmentalism.” As president of the Federation of Kukama Indigenous Women — Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (HKK) — Canaquiri has spent decades defending her people, their culture, and the sacred Marañón River that sustains them. “It's incredible to receive this news—and even more so for the value accorded to us as women,” said Canaquiri in an interview with Earth Law Center (ELC).
The Rights of Nature in Brazil: From Municipal Law Reform to Rights of Waves and the Movement for a Federal Constitutional Amendment
There are more than 23 Rights of Nature cases in Brazil that have been approved or are currently underway. Brazil’s Rights of Nature (direitos da natureza) movement includes such highlights as the recent approval for the rights of the Linhares waves and of the Amazonian Komi Memen River. This new blog post begins with a brief look at the history of environmental protection in modern Brazil. It then examines the current cases and approvals of RoN in the country, as well as the potential for a constitutional amendment to codify the recognition of Nature’s rights in the country.
ELC’s Latin America Program Advances Rights of Nature Strategic Litigation via Amicus Curiae Briefs
Earth Law Center’s Latin America team drafts amicus curiae briefs on the Rights of Nature as a tool to cross-pollinate Latin American courts with the ecocentric perspectives of comparative law and supranational courts, an important step toward legal recognition of Nature’s intrinsic value.
Spanish Lagoon Mar Menor Faces Initial Court Involvement and Constitutional Challenges to Its Rights
Spain’s Mar Menor, the first ecosystem in Europe to receive legal personhood, has become involved in several court cases and faces challenges to the constitutionality of its standing.
The Marañón River Case, Ríos Protegidos Intiative, Native Stingless Bee Project, and More: Six Months in Action with the ELC Latin America Legal Team
ELC’s Latin America Legal Program has developed 4 pillars of our work: 1) Environmental justice initiatives, 2) Nature defenders and human rights initiatives , 3) Legislative and policy initiatives, 4) Global advocacy and movement building initiatives. Together with our partners, we currently have active projects in 5 countries in South and Central America. We have shared our expert insights in more than 20 environmental lawsuits, contributed to the formulation of 15 environmental bills, and successfully passed 4 laws recognizing the Rights of Nature.
Nine Important Results from the Escazú COP3
Progress updates on implementation of the Escazú Agreement, which is the first international treaty in history to enshrine rights for those considered defenders of Nature, in order to reinforce the protection of human rights in environmental matters. Likewise, it promotes the implementation of management and governance mechanisms in environmental matters, involving vulnerable groups such as youth, women, and Indigenous peoples in the process.
ELC Latin America Team to Cohost Official Side Event at Escazú Agreement COP 3 (Zoom webinar registration link below)
ELC Latin America Team to Cohost Official Side Event at Escazú Agreement COP 3 (Zoom webinar; registration link below)
Peru's Marañón River Wins Recognition of Rights and Indigenous Guardianship in Court
Earth Law Center (ELC) celebrates an important victory obtained for the Marañón River on March 18, 2024. The Kukama Indigenous women of Santa Rita de Castilla, and legal nonprofit Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), obtained a historic ruling recognizing the river as a holder of inherent rights—the first such ruling in Peru. With ELC’s Latin America Legal Program having supported the case since its inception, we are thrilled to see this development.
Coalition Spotlight: Ríos Protegidos
Earth Law Center is proud to announce joining the Ríos Protegidos initiative, a space that seeks to strengthen the protection of Chile’s rivers by applying existing tools, recognizing gaps and opportunities in river conservation and restoration, and promoting new legislation on protected and restored rivers. ELC’s Latin America Legal Program recently participated in a workshop to promote the conservation and permanent restoration of rivers in the Aysén region—a huge, sparsely populated area in southern Chile that is home to volcanoes, massive ice fields, and other natural wonders.
Earth Law Center Advocates for the Rights of Peru's Marañón River
A major court ruling on a case against Peruvian state oil company Petroperu, as well as the Regional Government of Loreto and other state entities, is expected in the coming weeks. It has the potential to establish the river as a rights-bearing entity, which would make it the next in a growing list of rivers in South America to have been recognized as having rights.